The metaverse has been here for a long time — it just hasn’t been very good. The term, a conceptual catch-all of interconnected virtual spaces, has surged in the cultural zeitgeist since Facebook changed its name to Meta. Once simply the domain of gamers and niche commercial applications, a mainstream embrace of extended reality seems practically inevitable. The immediate problem with this future — whether you’re excited, apprehensive, or otherwise — is that current extended reality (XR) hardware just isn’t ready for the metaverse. Not for mainstream consumers, anyway. The requisite headsets are too expensive, too bulky, or simply not…